Another lawsuit filed over police recording

1/17/13 2:06 PM EST

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the arrest of a man who was recording police activity on his cellphone.

According to the complaint in Christopher Montgomery v. City of Philadelphia, in January 2011, Montgomery observed police making arrests after a disturbance and recorded the incident on his iPhone. He was arrested, held for 45 minutes and his video was deleted from his phone. He was charged with and found guilty of disorderly conduct.

The lawsuit claims recording police officers is protected by the First Amendment.

"As the role of the citizen journalist increases in these tense situations, it's crucial that everyone holds up their recording devices and holds the powerful accountable," Montgomery said in a release from the ACLU.

The ACLU calls the lawsuit the first in a series challenging “routine” action by the Philadelphia police.

This blog has written before about police recording issues. Most recently, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case from Illinois challenging a law against recording police officers, leading a lower court judge to finalize a decree allowing the Illinois ACLU to record officers publicly engaging in official duties and barring the state from enforcing eavesdropping laws against them.

Additionally, the Washington, D.C., police department has issued an order instructing its officers to not interfere with citizens recording their actions, which stemmed from a settlement in an ACLU case in D.C. on the subject.

A spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Police Department said the department was unable to comment on open litigation.